Note: This is a catch up post for rockhunting adventures in October & November 2025.
Although it is now March 2026 (yes, that’s right — nearly five months after the fact), I’ve only just had the time (aka a rainy day and no work) to play catch-up with my posting!
As it happens, my very good friend Nicola (aka NZ Rockhound of YouTube & TikTok) came down to stay with me in October/November last year. During that time we were so busy fossicking that I never took the opportunity to record our adventures on this blog. In fact, I might add that there were many! So, this post is a summary of what we got up to.
Before Nicola arrived, I was very organised with a schedule — thinking ahead about tides, work times, and also having guests staying in the BnB for part of the visit. Because of that planning, I don’t think we could have achieved as many rockhunting adventures as we did. For the most part we managed to tick off nearly everything on the list. However, we did miss the planned night fossick on Gemstone Beach.
By the end of the ten days we were both a wee bit tired. As a result, we didn’t make it back to Gemstone Beach on Nicola’s final day in Western Southland. After all, trying to fit in one last fossick as well as the one hour fifteen minute drive to Invercargill Airport was probably pushing things just a little!
The Schedule
The Highlights
I think we both agreed that a highlight was visiting Michelle at Deep South Pounamu. Michelle was so generous with her time and she had so thoughtfully prepared a gift each for us as well as loading us up with various stones & treasures! (I’ve got a special post brewing about our visit so I won’t share any photos from our visit in this post).
Another highlight for both of us was traversing the Shotover River in Queenstown (in two places) looking for Aroha Stone. We did find quite a bit each with Nicola weighing down her backpack and ALL her pockets plus whatever else she could carry. I’m sure the Shotover Jetboat customers thought we were hilarious as we clamoured along the banks and waved to them as they flew past!
Slope Point did not disappoint and it was very cool to finally met Mary (aka Diamond Kelp) after Nicola mentioning her many times. We enjoyed a number of hours on “Bach Beach” affectionally named by JP, filling up our backpacks once more. The trek up the hill was the least enjoyable part of the day! (I’m working on a specific post on this trip to Slope Point too so more photos later.)
Another highlight has to be Tiwai Point. This trip reaffirmed to me how valuable it is to belong to your local rock club because I would never know about or even know how to get access without belonging to a club.
(If you’re in the Southland area check out the Southland Geological and Lapidary Club – they’re a small but mighty club in Invercargill and I might be biased because I’m a member! They are also on Instagram and Facebook!)
I think Tiwai Point was Nicola’s most favourite adventure. She probably could have stayed there ALL day. We did do our best and spent the best part of 3½ hours there. Not another person in sight although the lovely people at the Tiwai office where you sign in and get a key told us three other people were through the gates as well. (They weren’t rock hunting like us though, two were fishing and one was diving!)
Non-rock Highlight!
The last highlight (not rock-related though) was the Aurora. She appeared just before the big moon came out on November 6th between 10:05pm to 10:49pm with visible rays to the naked eye in white, green and some diffuse red tinge too. It was so good to see the Dancing Lady, even better that Nicola was able to see it in person and capture it. It was the icing on the cake for her visit!
All too soon the ten days were up and it was time to take Nicola back to the airport. I’m pretty sure she had a blast and I’m pretty sure she’ll be back again. It really is fun to rockhunt with your rock buddy so thank you Nicola for leaving your family behind and coming all the way from Hawke’s Bay down to Western Southland to hunt rocks with me!